


The Second Battle of Kamino

by zoeology31



Series: A More Hopeful Galaxy [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Brainwashing, Canon-Typical Violence, Fix-It, Gen, Hopeful Ending, In-Universe Meta, Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, The Author Ignores Legends, Trans Clones, partially, the clones deserved better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:46:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24865516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoeology31/pseuds/zoeology31
Summary: In 7963 C.R.C., five years after the rise of the Empire and the shutdown of the cloning facilities on Kamino, the distant ocean world suffered a planetwide communications blackout. When the blackout ended nearly a year later, a mysterious individual in Mandalorian armor joined the Kaminoan representative in their Imperial Senate pod. An unprecedented electrical storm, they both claimed, and the truth of what happened during that year remained a mystery. Until now.This gallery of recordings, compiled by Galactic Civil War historians Pilar Andor and Ayako Xiono, contains archival data, communication logs, and hologram files that tell the story of the Kaminoans, the forgotten clones, and the struggle for the fate of their shared homeworld.
Series: A More Hopeful Galaxy [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799191
Kudos: 10





	The Second Battle of Kamino

//Filetype REPORT (Title “Monthly Report on Project #121 (Prime Jango Fett): Year 18, Month 9”, Author NALA SE, Date 01/01/0005 AFE) {

Regular operations have proceeded without major incident.

Squads CS-09-180001 through CS-09-200000 were tested for deployment readiness, and all squads successfully passed the test. I recommend all passing squads for immediate deployment.

Dismantling of the clone nursery and youth enrichment facilities is proceeding smoothly. An additional platoon of Kamino Security troopers has been assigned to the project, for a total of three platoons. With this added labor, I expect the spaces to be fully cleared in 10-12 weeks.

In total, two reconditionings, one decommissioning, and one accidental death were recorded this month. Designation and cause for each are listed below.

Reconditioned  
CT-01-7878, DY-11. Spread of seditious information.  
CT-35-9174, DY-10. Theft and destruction of Kaminoan property.

Decommissioned  
CT-64-0843, DY-13. Previously undetected mutation causing severe hemophilia.

Accidental Death  
CT-37-3371, DY-12. Drowning.

Nala Se  
Chief Medical Scientist of Kamino

}

* * *

HUD notes function, user IC-6254;

(22/08/04 AFE) Kriff

(22/08/04 AFE) Oh kriff. What is happening what have we done

(23/08/04 AFE) Discharged from the medbay, have drunk caf, finished internal screaming. Mostly. This is as good a place as any to keep track of what the absolute kriff is going on, thank the stars they don’t monitor helmet HUDs.

(24/08/04 AFE) Ok. It’s been about four years since the Clone Wars ended. After Utapau, we were transferred to a newer model Star Destroyer called the _Martinet_ under a new natborn general, and we’ve spent that time crushing uprisings on all those planets we saved. We’ve been destroying the people we were supposed to protect. We killed General Kenobi. Commander Cody himself ordered him shot down because they told us all the Jedi were traitors. Why did we believe them? Why did we follow them? Why am I realizing this now?

(24/08/04 AFE) I knew having a crisis in the middle of the night was a bad idea. Gonna try to figure this out rationally. Stars, these blasters can’t aim for shit. Where’s a good DC-15A when you need it.

(25/08/04 AFE) Commander Cody pulled me aside today and asked if I was feeling alright. Told him it was the concussion and he followed me around for 20 minutes making sure I was drinking enough water. Stars, he’s like a mother krayt. Can’t believe he’s the same person who ordered us to burn those farms on Felucia during the last campaign. It’s so… not him. Not any of us.

(26/08/04 AFE) The concussion. That must’ve been what snapped me out of this. It must be some kind of mind control, like those Force tricks Kenobi always did. But I’ve never heard of a Jedi being able to affect so many people for such a long time. Maybe the longnecks programmed something into us. I certainly wouldn’t put it past them.

(28/08/04 AFE) Busy couple days. We’ve got a new assignment, relieving the _Stalwart_ at the blockade over Kamino. Closest I’ve been to the place since the Seppies attacked in the second year of the war. It’s weird going back with so many people who don’t have a connection to there. The battalion’s about half natborn recruits now, we haven’t gotten new clone troopers since Utapau. I heard they stopped production when the war ended, so it must be mostly the ones decanted during the war still left.

(29/08/04 AFE) Noticed something at lunch today. I’ve been watching the other clones to see if anyone else has snapped out of the mind control, and I think Wooley might have. He used to be such a chatterbox, but he’s been pretty quiet lately. Well, quiet for him at least. I’m gonna keep an eye on him.

(31/08/04 AFE) Arrived at Kamino, and I’m definitely suspicious of Wooley. His hair is always falling in his face, and he hasn’t let that happen since we all watched Commander Cody scold Skywalker about it on Christophsis. Only reason I can think is to hide his terrible sabacc face. Seriously. If clones got paid, Oddball and I would be so rich off Wooley by now. Gonna try to catch him alone this week and confirm.

(34/08/04 AFE) News report mentioned a flareup in rebel activity on Ryloth. I wonder how Numa’s doing, hope she’s okay. I miss Waxer.

(03/09/04 AFE) Finally talked to Wooley, and he is snapped out of it! Kriff yes. Says it’s been about six months for him, since his unit hit that IED on Mandalore. He’s found one other so far, he’ll try to set up a meeting. Couldn’t talk for long though. Hopefully more soon.

(04/09/04 AFE) Blasted stormtrooper kit. Who’s kriffing idea was it to not include a text comm network? I stand guard in this kriffing hangar for eight kriffing hours and there’s nothing to do. Except talk to the natborns about new speeder models or whatever. So like I said, nothing to do.

(07/09/04 AFE) Met the other snapped-out clone today. Her name’s Leaf and she’s an ordnance specialist, brought on during the Outer Rim sieges. Didn’t even pick a name until Yerbana. Poor kid.

(08/09/04 AFE) Leaf had some theories for what exactly this mind control thing is. If it was some form of Force suggestion or coded directly into our genetics, nothing should be able to turn it off, so it has to be something implanted. And it can’t be made of metal, because that would show up on medical scans. Maybe some kind of parasite? I’ve heard stories from Commander Cody about those brain-infesting worms on Geonosis.

(10/09/04 AFE) Putting in a request to transfer Leaf to my platoon, it’ll be easier to meet with her that way and not draw suspicion.

(12/09/04 AFE) Request approved, and in record time. Commander Cody delivered the news himself, I think he’s glad I’ve “made a new friend”. Normally I’d correct him, but it does work as a cover, so my pride will have to suffer for the cause.

(15/09/04 AFE) Watched a natborn walk right into a bulkhead today. I swear his helmet had a kriffing dent in it. How far the galaxy’s mighty army has fallen.

(17/09/04 AFE) Wooley, Leaf, and I are all researching separately on brain parasites, drugs, biochips, viruses, anything we can think of to see if something matches this mind control thing. If we can figure out what it is, maybe we can find a way to snap more clones out of it. Then we’ll… I dunno. Mutiny? Escape? Don’t really want to think that far ahead yet.

(19/09/04 AFE) Leaf has never been to 79’s. Unbelievable. Luckily the place is still around, if less trafficked than it used to be and located at the heart of a government that uses and disposes of us like tools, so next time we’re on Coruscant we’ll have to fix that. Probably the only decent thing left on the planet.

(20/09/04 AFE) Nightmare. Bad one. About Kenobi this time, though Waxer always manages to end up in there somewhere. My foot hurts, I think I kicked the bunk post waking up. Gonna be a long day.

(21/09/04 AFE) Nightmare again. I think someone switched the caf machine to decaf. Fantastic. Just what I need right now.

(22/09/04 AFE) Can’t sleep. Probably a mistake to read the report on the Geonosian worms tonight. Kriff me.

(23/09/04 AFE) Avoiding Commander Cody. I think he’s noticed how tired I’ve been lately and I really don’t need him asking questions.

(27/09/09 AFE) Wooley’s close to a breakthrough in the research, something about an incident report from the 501st in the last year of the war. I wonder if Captain Rex knew. He’s the one who rescued ARC Trooper Echo from the Techno Union, so if anyone would know about conspiracies and cover-ups, it would’ve been him.

(28/09/04 AFE) That update is literally the only thing keeping me sane right now.

(29/09/04 AFE) It’s the middle of the night. Woke up on the floor with Leaf standing over me. Thought she was Waxer at first and stars, that was the most embarrassing 30 seconds of my life. She says she caught me in the middle of a bad nightmare, and now I’m sitting in the rec room while she makes us caf. I tried to leave once and she made me sit back down and called me “old man”. Rude. It’s weird but I guess it’s better than trying to go back to sleep. So.

(29/09/04 AFE) I’m over-caffeinated but this is the best shift I’ve had in two weeks. Leaf and I ended up talking for almost two hours. It was… really nice actually. I got to tell her a bunch of stories from before her time in the war, like all the dumb stuff General Kenobi would pull. She thought that stunt with Grievous on Utapau was reckless, but that’s nothing compared to what old-timers like me and Wooley have witnessed. And she told me about her squadmates. They’re all gone now, same as most of the brothers and sisters from my stories, but it doesn’t feel as bad to talk about them as I would’ve thought. In fact, it feels better now that we did talk about it. I’m sure there’s some Jedi philosophy lesson in there about acknowledging your feelings or whatever, so I guess that makes sense.

(30/09/04 AFE) No nightmares last night. Maybe Leaf and I should do this more often.

(31/09/04 AFE) Finally got to meet with Wooley to talk about what he’s found. He wanted both of us there and now I know why. We all have inhibitor chips implanted in our skulls, built out of our own cells like little evil tumors. According to official records, they’re supposed to inhibit aggression, like the Kaminoans haven’t lied to us every minute of our damn lives. One of the 501st Umbara vets, Tup, went crazy and shot a Jedi, and ARC Trooper Fives claimed it was the inhibitor chips that made him do it. The report says Fives tried to assassinate the Chancellor, and then the Coruscant Guard shot him. Convenient. This is it. This is what we’ve been looking for.

(32/09/04 AFE) More research. With the nature of these chips, the only way to deactivate them that we can find is either head injury or removal via surgery. Obviously, head injury isn’t ideal. According to the report, Fives removed both his and Tup’s chips while on Kamino. Now, Tup did die immediately afterward and Fives apparently was acting erratic and paranoid, so who knows if removing the chips messed something else up, but it can be done.

(34/09/04 AFE) Still no good ideas. None of us has any medical training, and we’d have no idea what to look for even if we did. No good way to kidnap a medic or reprogram a droid in the middle of a Star Destroyer either. So we’re in a holding pattern for now. Keep our heads down, stick together, look for opportunities.

(35/09/04 AFE) Oh, and don’t lose hope. Hope for what, I don’t know, but we can’t lose it.

…

Close function? **Y** / N

Function closed.

* * *

>>Kaminoan biological memory core KM-232, recorded by Kior Fa.

>>Interfacing… {

_I enter the room. Taun We and KS-4399— Commander Blitz, that is— are already there. Taun We gives me a nod._

_“Thank you for joining us, Kior. The young ones are on their way.”_

_“I hope they aren’t in too much trouble. I know they didn’t mean any harm,” I say._

_“I agree, Doctor Fa.” It is Commander Blitz who replies. “But we have to follow the protocol laid out by Doctor Se. Whatever that… entails.”_

_It’s on the edge of subversive, but I’m glad Nala Se is busy today. She doesn’t usually supervise petty incidents like this, but Blitz and the other clones always seem tense around her. I suppose one could call her cold, and that must be stifling to the clones. They have so much energy._

_Blitz has his helmet off right now, and he’d never do that if Nala Se were here. He looks… sad. He’s looked sad for so long, since the Invasion when he lost his friends, oh, what were their names, the red one and the blue one. The other ARC troopers. But he’s only gotten sadder since then. Maybe it’s because clone production was stopped. It’s strange having the nurseries shut down, and the facility is only getting emptier as time goes on._

_The door slides open, and I look up as the five cadets enter. They’re barely still cadets; according to their squad designation, they are only a month shy of 9 standard years and deployment. All five are male-presenting, as identical in appearance as they are in genome._

_“CS-10-007724, Jenth Squad?” Taun We asks._

_“Yes, Administrator,” the cadets acknowledge, standing to attention in a straight line before us._

_“Do you know why you are here?”_

_The cadet closest to me shifts a little. “We snuck into the kitchens.”_

_“After curfew,” the cadet beside him adds._

_“And why did you do this?” Taun We asks. Her voice is gentle like always, prompting. She was a good choice for Administrator. Her gentleness makes it easy to forget how clear-headed she is in her decisions._

_I glance over and catch Blitz’s eye. Like Taun We, his face betrays none of his thoughts._

_“’51 was hungry. The simulation we ran yesterday evening really tired us all out,” the first cadet who spoke says._

_The cadet on the far end winces, looking over at his squadmate. That must be ’51. “Sorry, Administrator. Won’t happen again.” The others murmur their agreement._

_Now Blitz steps forward. “This was a first offense for all of you, so no punishment is necessary. But it will go on your records, and another incident could be cause for reconditioning. So I expect you all to follow orders from now on. Understood?”_

_The cadets nod, and something in Blitz’s expression changes. Pride, maybe? He surveys the squad, looking at each cadet in turn. “Eyespot, CT-70-2328, CT-56-7849, Spark, ’51. You are all fine soldiers, and I have faith you’ll serve us well. Best of luck with the rest of your training. Dismissed.”_

_The cadets salute respectfully before filing out of the room, the door shutting behind them as Blitz turns to Taun We. “Was that satisfactory, Administrator?”_

_“It was, Commander,” she says, making a few notes on her datapad. “You do an admirable job of maintaining cadet morale. The troops under your tutelage are truly assets to the Empire.”_

_“Thank you, Administrator. Doctor,” Blitz says, nodding to both Taun We and I in turn. He dons his helmet, straightens his pauldron, and leaves._

_“Apologies for calling you down all this way, Kior. It turns out we didn’t need your testimony after all,” Taun We says to me._

_“It’s no trouble,” I assure her. It definitely is trouble, but I so rarely get to see the clones face to face in such a small group, so I can handle the inconvenience. Sometimes I wish my work let me interact more directly with the clones instead of analyzing from a distance, but with this project winding down, it looks like I won’t get the chance to. “I should be getting back now, though. Always work to be done.”_

_“Of course.” Taun We returns my parting nod and I take my leave._

_Outside the room, I start up a brisk pace and check my chrono. 10:36. From here it’s a 15 minute walk to my office, exactly halfway down the passage between the primary kitchens and the medical wing. The meeting went faster than expected, but I still have a stack of data to analyze and I was hoping to take the evening off._

_I almost don’t hear the voices ahead of me before I round the corner. In the time it takes me to stop just out of sight, I recognize the first voice. Commander Blitz?_

_“Still think you want a pet tooka?”_

_“Not sure anymore. I’ve heard they bite.”_

_The other voice is a clone too, but I don’t know who. I stand there listening, fixed in place by curiosity. The rest of the hallway is silent in the mid-morning lull._

_“Surely you can train them not to.”_

_“I don’t know. I’m afraid they’re all too stubborn for their own good.”_

_“Who told you that?”_

_“‘4114.”_

_“Ah. Maybe a different pet then.”_

_“Yeah, I’ll think about it.”_

_A pause. I should keep walking, but—_

_“Do you think the sun will come out anytime soon?”_

_“Tomorrow looks good for it.”_

_“I’ll have to try and catch it, then.”_

_“Don’t worry about the pet thing too much, okay, kid? You have a good heart, and you’ve already done more than I could ask for.”_

_“Thanks, Commander. Likewise.”_

_The voices stop and I hear the hiss of a door opening. The new sound pulls me out of my single-minded eavesdropping and I remember that I have somewhere to be. I round the corner._

_Blitz turns as I approach, the blank armor and blank stance masking any reaction of surprise. The clone he was talking to stands frozen in the doorway, eyebrows raised at me in recognition. One of the cadets from the meeting, then._

_“Doctor Fa,” Blitz acknowledges. “Did you need something?”_

_“No, just passing through,” I reply. I’ve always found the stormtrooper armor unsettling, too much like a face. Right now I can feel those unblinking black eyes tracking me as I retreat down the hallway._

_I’m thinking about that encounter all the way back to my office. The conversation was normal, the kind of small talk heard in the mess hall every day, but something about it felt anomalous. I should report it. At the least, it could mean Commander Blitz is playing favorites._

_Ignoring the datapads in my inbox, I sit down at my station and type up the report. It goes quickly; I remember every word of that conversation. I proofread the text for errors and designate Nala Se and Taun We as recipients._

_My fingers hesitate over the send command._

_An old memory surfaces, another conversation glimpsed in a hallway: Blitz with his two friends, showing off the clean lines of yellow paint on his armor. The one in blue says something and Blitz laughs, lightly swatting his friend’s pauldron as the one in red waves his hands animatedly._

_The clones were meant to be the perfect army. Obedient, tough, conforming. Not defiant. Not messy. Not people._

_They always managed to exceed expectations._

_I delete the report and go back to work._

}

* * *

//img.215438718-11057963

[Desc: Scanning of a small sheet of flimsi, creased by sharp fold lines.

On the outside is written, “Contingency use only.” On the inside, “If you are reading this, you have been reconditioned. Be a good soldier, and take heart, for this is not the end. When you remember what runs in your blood, seek out the fire before it ignites, or the battle that comes like a storm. You are not alone. We stand beside you, always.”

To date, 293 copies of this sheet have been found hidden in Tipoca City cadet barracks.]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is an experimental new style for me; I've never tried in-universe meta but so far it's going pretty well. I have Many Feelings on the end of the Clone Wars and the fate of the clones, so this is my attempt to fix that. Disclaimer: I have a poor track record of finishing stories, although I am getting pretty into this one. We'll see where it goes from here, and enjoy!


End file.
